


The Good Place

by quinship



Category: Tegan and Sara (Band)
Genre: Afterlife, All characters are dead, F/F, the good place AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2019-08-28 00:52:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16713397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quinship/pseuds/quinship
Summary: Sara ends up in an afterlife she didn't think possible. But there's a very familiar face in what's supposed to be eternal bliss. And whose paradise is it?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, i was getting caught up on TGP season 3 today and this idea popped in my head and at first i thought it would be something i would just think about and not post, but I wanted to write certain parts of it, so I decided to do just that; write snippets of stuff that goes on, but not write a full thing. So you guys can just imagine the stuff that goes on between the snippets. If the timeline is out of order i will tell you.
> 
> SPOILERS FOR THE GOOD PLACE, ESPECIALLY SEASON ONE, i highly reccommend watching in order to get more out of this fic, and because it's a damn good show; it's on the NBC app and netflix

“You, Sara Quin, are dead.” The woman/angel called Stacy calmly informed Sara. “You were hit by a car walking into traffic. But don’t worry, you’re in what we call, the Good Place.”

“As opposed to… The Bad Place?” Sara asked, finally speaking for the first time since she’d arrived here.

“Yes, exactly.” Stacy smiled and went into the explanation that instead of heaven or hell, there was the Good Place and the Bad Place, and that everyone’s actions added to or deducted from a total of points, and that Sara was one of the best of the best, earning her a spot in a neighborhood in the Good Place, where she would enjoy eternal bliss catered especially to her likes, and even meet her soulmate.

Stacy stood, beckoning Sara to follow her, continuing her monologue about the paradise she'd created as they went through the neighborhood, filled with shops, restaurants, and beautiful common areas until they finally reached a building consisting of what looked like apartments.

“And this is where you’ll be staying.” Stacy explained, that smile still on her face. “This living space was picked especially for you, because of your love for a simple residence in a strong community. Come on inside.”

Sara’s eyes widened upon Stacy saying she would be _living_ there… When she was alive, she’d rented a former guest house on a larger property so she would have peace and quiet, even working from home most days… It was a longer commute, but it was well worth the money, in Sara’s opinion.

But she followed Stacy, into her unit… one with people on both sides. Yuck. Again, Sara’s eyes widened upon seeing that it was a studio apartment… No organization. No rooms for separate purposes. There were those stupid inspirational posters on the walls and a pink floral duvet on the bed. Giant windows were all around, creating a lack of privacy unless Sara wanted to shut out the 'natural' light. In addition, there was no computer or bookshelf in sight. And white carpet on the floor... That was just asking for stains, good god... And Sara didn't even believe in God or the afterlife before this. 

“A fun feature is the fact that you can play your memories from your point of view on the TV, see?” Stacy picked up a remote control, queuing up footage of someone working in a homeless shelter. “My personal favorites are your holidays… All of which you spent volunteering. Points every single time. I have such admiration for your work with Doctors Without Borders…” Stacy placed a hand over her own heart.

Sara didn’t think it prudent to bring up the fact that she was a publishing editor, not a doctor. Nor could she recall ever volunteering at any homeless shelter.

“Oh, and let me introduce your soulmate to you.” Stacy strode to the door and opened it. “Come on in, Lindsey!”

Thank god it was a woman, at least.

Apparently, Lindsey had dyed blonde hair with dark roots, and she looked confused upon seeing a tiny androgynous woman standing in the middle of the studio apartment.

“My soulmate is a woman?” She asked, turning to Stacy.

“Yep!” Stacy offered no further explanation. “Sounds like you two need some time alone to get acquainted.” And with that, she left, shutting the door behind her.

“So... Am I incorrect in assuming you’re a lesbian?” Lindsey asked, frowning at Sara. She made no move to get closer.

“I mean… no. But I kinda prefer to call myself gay or queer…” Sara answered, wondering what the fuck was wrong with this woman.

“Ok, just to be clear, I’m not gay. I’m straight.” Lindsey crossed her arms over her chest. Well, that explained a lot. But if Lindsey was going to be rude to her, she was going to be rude to Lindsey.

“Ok? And? I didn’t assign us as soulmates.” Sara shrugged, crossing her own arms over her chest.

Lindsey let out a long breath, making an unhappy face. “I’m Lindsey Byrnes, by the way…. I was a photographer.”

“How did a photographer get into the Good Place?”

“A lot of volunteer humanitarian jobs… I’d take pictures of stuff like places after natural disasters and create awareness.” Lindsey shrugged. “My work took me around the world.”

“Cool. By the way, I don’t really want a soulmate? So you don’t have to worry about me being a woman.” Sara sat down on the white leather couch with a frown. It wasn’t comfortable at all. But then again, it was made for someone else.

“You don’t want me?!” Lindsey protested. Why the fuck was she offended? She didn’t want to be with Sara either, so there shouldn’t have been a problem.

Sara sighed again, trying to figure out what to do with Lindsey’s response when there was a knock on the door. Maybe that would ease the tension somehow. She doubted it, but another presence would certainly ensure Lindsey didn’t melt down into tantrum mode.

“Come in!” She called out, not bothering to get up.

The door opened and in walked two small brunette women. One was a complete stranger and the other… was all too familiar.

“Tegan?!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! Here is the next installation of ficmas. As a reminder, this fic probably won't make sense unless you've watched The Good Place, esp season 1, and this fic could potentially contain spoilers. Not sure tho! I have an idea of what I want to do but mainly this fic is just me having fun.

“Tegan, you didn’t tell me you had a twin…” The woman next to Tegan remarked, eyes darting between the two, obviously uncomfortable with the clear tension between them.

“I…” Tegan managed, her voice seeming to die in her throat.

“Um… I guess this is a bad time.” Lindsey muttered, moving out the door.

“Uh, should I go?” The woman with Tegan asked hesitantly.

Sara got up, practically dragging her feet over to the door. At least that Lindsey left. Sara really didn’t want to deal with her crisis over having a woman be assigned as her soulmate, especially since Sara was a case of mistaken identity to begin with, and her days of dealing with straight women wanting to play games were over.

But the woman next to Tegan was… pretty cute, upon Sara’s first real assessment. _Don’t mind if I do,_ Sara thought, resisting the urge to lick her lips.

“Um, maybe we do need a minute, Emy,” Tegan mumbled, letting out a sigh.

Sara’s eyes raked up Emy’s figure, their eyes meeting. Emy’s blue eyes spilled confusion and curiosity. And then Emy shut the door behind herself, and Sara was left with the person she’d spent her adult life trying to escape.

“You died… And I thought I’d never get to see you again.” Tegan’s soft voice sounded far away, likely from sadness. “I…” She got choked up and her voice cut out.

“Tegan…” Sara rolled her eyes. “Stop.” Should she tell Tegan that she was in the wrong place? It wasn’t like Tegan would give her up and risk losing her precious twin, what with how emotional and sentimental she was, and how desperate to be close to Sara she had been when they were alive. Besides, Tegan would figure it out sooner or later, since she knew Sara’s life. Of course, she wouldn‘t do anything about it, but Sara could do without the dopey confused eyes and Tegan struggling to find a way to bring it up. “Look… There’s been a mistake.”

“What?” Tears already filled her eyes.

“I’m not supposed to be here. They have me mistaken for someone else.” Sara deadpanned.

“I… what?” Tegan furrowed her eyebrows.

“Tegan, it’s not that hard. Someone forked… forked.” Sara frowned, stopping. “Wait… shirt… what?”

“Are you trying to say shirt and fork?” Tegan asked, pausing. “Wait, why can’t I say it?”

“Bench, I swear if I can’t say fork…” Sara shook her head. “That’s the first forking word I ever said.”

Tegan frowned, turning her head off to the side. “Hey, Jeremy?”

There was a low chime, and a man appeared. Tegan turned back to Sara. 

“Um…. Why is there suddenly a man in my apartment?” Sara asked.

“I’m Jeremy, a source of information and knowledge in the Good Place. I can also bring you any object you may want.” He replied, eerily cheerfully.

“Um… why can’t we swear?” Sara asked, still weirded out.

“Many residents here find it offensive, so there is no profanity in the Good Place,” Jeremy explained, still so creepily cheerful.

“Um… can you leave?” And with that, he disappeared. “So… as I was saying… I’m here by accident, apparently.”

“We’re not supposed to be in heaven together?” Tegan asked, frowning.

“Apparently not.” Sara shrugged. “Anyway, they think I was a doctor who worked for Doctors Without Borders and volunteered at a homeless shelter.” She shook her head. “Obviously, you know that’s not true.”

“Well… What do we do?”

“Um, are you high? We don’t do anything. We stay quiet about this.” Sara instructed harshly. “If you tell anyone, I’m gonna get sent to the Bad Place, and you don’t want that, do you?”

Tegan frowned, bowing her head and shaking it no.

“Good. Glad we got that sorted out. Now…. I’d like to meet your little… soulmate.” Sara licked her lips, smiling and straightening up, putting her shoulders back. This was gonna be fun. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey folksies! i just wanna remind you, this is not a good fic to read if you have not watched the entirety of season one of The Good Place. If you have not and just like reading whatever fics are in this fandom.... you're not gonna get this. This fic is niche as fuck and honestly i'm having the time of my life writing it. 
> 
> Anyway today i made the decision that this story will change POVs starting next chapter. Also i wrote most of this chapter in bed and i am proud of that fact. This chapter was barely edited because i am tired but cannot go to bed because my suitemate and her boyfriend are watching TV in the next room and I can hear it, which does not help me fall asleep.

Anywhere Sara was subjected to Tegan’s dopey puppy eyes was no heaven of hers. And on top of this, she supposed Tegan had to be elated about their current arrangement… Sara finally lived near her again. In fact, they were next-door neighbors. Again, no heaven of Sara’s. (Well, no shit, she thought to herself. She wasn’t supposed to be there.)

Tegan invited Sara over, but she declined. Especially since it turned out that Emy lived in a house at the edge of town setup. So when Emy was gone, Sara retreated into her own apartment, locking the door and hating that stupid bunk bed with a desk instead of the bottom bunk… Back when she was alive, Sara had different rooms for her office and her bedroom. She hated the chaos of everything except the bathroom being in one room. It all clashed together too much. And if the stress of not having things separated by room wasn’t enough, there was also the anxiety of having only a wall on each side of her to separate Sara from other people. She needed her fucking space in order to relax, or else she’d be forced to stay on edge all the time. How the fuck was she going to get through the afterlife, pretending to be someone else, if she couldn’t relax at all?

Growing up with Tegan in the room next to her and sharing a bathroom was great for their first several years. But as Sara began to try to figure out who she was, the frustration of that always being connected to Tegan became claustrophobic. When she went to university, Sara specifically chose a school across the continent from Tegan so she could have space to figure herself out.

Now, with where she was for eternity, she could rip her hair out.

She paced around her apartment, restlessness rising inside her. She wanted to clean, but she’d only just moved in and that just wasn't applicable. She could try to spend time with “her” soulmate… No. Absolutely not. Lindsey’s “no homo” straight girl attitude was not something Sara wanted to subject herself to more than necessary. Though… She could ask Jeremy where Emy lived and get acquainted with her. There was almost nothing good about the Good Place so far, but Sara decided her goal would be to talk Emy into bed with her. It was decided.

So she called heaven’s Alexa, finding him to be pretty useful, especially with the knowledge that nobody would know what she asked for.

She made herself look nicer, asked Jeremy for a tin of Royal Dansk butter cookies (one that did not have sewing supplies inside) and carried it as a house warming gift as she walked through the town, avoiding groups of people who would try to talk to her, until she reached the late 19th century style house. Actually, Sara wasn’t sure it could be called a house. It wasn’t quite big enough to be a mansion… But it was rather large to just be called a house.

Sara knocked on the door after listening for a few seconds to try to see if other people were there, as she didn’t feel like trying to navigate a social interaction with anyone except her person of interest.

Emy opened the door, blue eyes wide upon seeing that her soulmate’s twin sister had come to see her. After Sara and Tegan’s little talk, Tegan had brought a confused Emy back and awkwardly introduced her to Sara. That confusion came back. Clearly, Tegan did not tell her much about their relationship, which would work in Sara’s favor.

“Hi, Emy. I thought I’d bring you a house-warming gift.” Sara held out the cookie tin.

Emy blinked, looking at the container, slowly taking it from Sara and forcing a smile. “Um, thank you, Sara. Would… Would you like to come in?” She seemed apprehensive about inviting Sara in, but Sara figured that wasn’t her own problem.

Immediately upon entering Emy’s house, Sara decided she needed to actually befriend Emy so she could spend time here and not just sleep with her and make things awkward. Sara was out of practice when it came to making friends with people, but she never did so without an ulterior motive and thankfully, this case was no different.

“Here, come on into the living room.” Emy led Sara into the door directly off from the entryway. Every table or counter surface Sara had seen so far held a vase full of flowers. The hardwood floor had a rug spread over it. It reminded Sara of a furniture catalog that some upper-middle-class suburban mother would purchase from in order to try appearing sophisticated meanwhile her husband was cheating on her and her children resented her. But Emy didn’t give off the upper-middle-class suburban mother vibes. She seemed more like the type of woman who had a flower garden complete with a compost bin and a constant supply of fresh squeezed lemonade. “So… what brings you here? Not that I’m not happy to see you but I thought you were Tegan at first glance.” She confessed.

“I thought we got a bad introduction and that I deserved to introduce myself to you… on my own terms.” Sara smiled, tilting her head ever so slightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you think i guess, i have a tumblr and the comments below are open for you to tell me pretty much anything.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! i'm super sorry i haven't really been updating or posting anything in the past like month, esp Peachy Pomegranate. I swear i just want to finish the chapter i'm working on before posting another. I've just been super busy. I have stuff planned tho!! so much planned. 
> 
> ok as for this chapter... it's a change in POV because i felt like it. and i wanted to explore the other characters.

Emy didn’t want to think about the implications of the fact that her soulmate’s sister was the one spending time with her; getting to know her, and not her soulmate. Tegan was really sweet, upon Emy’s first impressions, but admittedly, it was still the first day in the afterlife. The unexpectedness of seeing her sister in the Good Place had apparently been a lot for Tegan… as it would probably be for most people. Emy wondered who’d died first. Which one had mourned the other, only to die afterward and find the sister she thought she’d lost forever right next door in the afterlife? If Emy were allowed to bet, she’d probably put her money on Tegan. The surge of emotion at seeing Sara in that apartment when they had just gone to meet Tegan’s neighbors…

Sara was a lot more charming than Emy would have initially thought, asking Emy all about her life. Emy usually hated talking about herself, but Sara asked so many questions about Emy’s work as a cop and then a detective. Sara’s reactions to a job Emy resented almost seemed to make it more worth it than making it into the Good Place. At least she could now draw and paint as much as she wanted, and no longer had to go into work and act like she remotely cared about catching criminals. Well… she didn’t really _not_ care, but law enforcement was not something Emy had wanted to do. The times she’d filled in for the sketch artist was the most fun she’d ever had at her job.

Emy missed her cat, though. But it was ok, she could ask for a new one, even though it wouldn’t be the same or have the same personality as Like Like. She could actually remember bits of her death; she’d been shot and recalled worrying about who would feed her cat… But Stacy assured her that Like Like would go to a good home.  

When Sara finally left, she said with a mischievous smile and a cocked head, “I hope I see you later,” which made Emy blush and lean against her door, smiling like a schoolgirl. It took several minutes for her to remember that Sara wasn’t her soulmate; Tegan was. And yet… Tegan didn’t make Emy feel giddy like this. Even worse, it was Tegan’s twin; someone with a soulmate of her own. Emy couldn’t just… or could she? She’d spent so much of her life unhappy… It was nice to be in heaven… She might as well enjoy herself…

Emy covered up the mirrors in her house. She had to ask Jeremy for so many tapestries… There was at least one mirror in each room. She averted her eyes from the glass and polished wood while closing all the curtains to hide from passersby.

She couldn’t. She just couldn’t. But oh, how she wanted to see Sara again; a desire that immediately filled Emy with shame. But that wasn’t enough to silence it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you all enjoyed!!! if not... well shit, fam.


	5. Chapter 5

Lindsey wanted to speak to the manager of Heaven. The soulmate that had been selected for her was probably the worst possible pick for her. A lesbian? Come on. Lindsey was straight. A bad soulmate was worse than no soulmate at all, and Lindsey held to that philosophy even when she was alive. She’d lived to her thirties, but past her early twenties, ceased dating; only having hookups and one-night-stands. When her parents badgered her about getting married and having kids, Lindsey would just say she was married to her job. And what a job it was…

Lindsey had to compete against many photographers before she got the opportunities she did, but she proved to pull in front of them. She always told people it was because she demonstrated ambition and drive, but in reality, she slept with higher-ups, and then those higher-ups drowned out the voices of people who tried to get in Lindsey’s way. A couple of years after she stopped dating, she realized how much her friends and family were holding her back. So she learned how to put them last and only made friends who would benefit her. Lindsey’s standards had grown, so suffice it to stay, Heaven was not up to her standards.

It also hurt that the soulmate in question didn’t want her. Sure, Lindsey had said she didn’t want her first, but still. It was only fun to reject people when they craved her.

At least Lindsey made it to Heaven, she supposed. People liked to tell her she was destined to hell, but in life, she hadn’t cared about the afterlife; not believing in it. Her philosophy was to live life to the fullest. And while the afterlife was not terrible, her home was nothing to sneeze at, what with it being two stories and having four bedrooms with two-and-a-half bathrooms, complete with an herb garden in the front yard and a fruit and vegetable garden in the back. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get a gardener; she’d asked Jeremy, so she now had to go to the dirty work of trying to maintain it… unless she could get someone else to do it… Even so, she considered it a significant downgrade from her penthouse apartment and a rooftop garden.

She wondered if the lesbian who rejected her had as high of standards as she did… Ugh, probably not. But then she remembered… That woman had a sister. A twin sister. If she was a lesbian too… Lindsey had a devious idea. What if she seduced her soulmate’s twin sister and broke her heart? That would be revenge for getting rejected. 


End file.
